Daniel HuggettSince the inception of Kevin Durant’s line of signature basketball sneakers with Nike, the two entities have always made it a point to release a colorway that pays homage to KD’s alma mater; the University of Texas at Austin. In fact, every entry in the series thus far has had it’s own Longhorn colorway, with most of these sporting UT branding in some form. With the line now on it’s 14th iteration, fans of the burnt orange and white have understandably looked forward to seeing how this year’s Texas KD would turn out.
Due to the myriad of issues currently facing the global supply chain in the sneaker industry, there was some uncertainty as to weather or not we would even see an official UT colorway of this year’s shoe: the Nike KD14. While the Longhorn basketball teams have been wearing a burnt orange “team bank” pair of the 14s since the beginning of the season, this shoe was clearly a more generic option, and lacked the special color blocking that most of the Texas KDs have had up until this point.
However, this uncertainty proved to be unfounded, with UT basketball social media accounts trumpeting the debut of the Nike KD14 “Texas” prior to Horn’s recent win over the Oklahoma State Cowboys. While the shoes only appeared to be worn during warmups by senior guard Avery Benson (who did not play during the contest), many players have hooped in other colorways of the 14s throughout the season. As such, it stands to reason that we’ll likely see these specific UT KD14s worn by more players on the team as the Longhorns enter their most difficult stretch of the season.
Colorway wise, these Texas KD14s sport a predominantly white upper that gives the shoe a clean look. A burnt orange outsole, sockliner, heel clip, and strap provide the shoe with a good blend of UT’s two signature colors, and helps prevent these sneakers from appearing too plain. For branding, the left shoe features the Longhorn logo on tongue, while the KD logo occupies this same space on the right. Overall, these KD14s do a great job of balancing both burnt orange and white, which is something that some predominantly white UT KDs have failed to do in the past.
It has been well noted on this site that I am not a huge fan of primarily white sneakers. However, I personally feel that these look great, and that the heavy use of burnt orange on the strap and outsole prevents them from appearing too simple. While they could have done a bit more to make them really pop (such as the addition of light grey accents), overall, I think Nike did a good job with these given the supply chain issues that the footwear industry is currently facing. Although I wouldn’t consider them to be amongst the top tier of UT KDs, they’re definitely a solid entry in a series that now spans 14 entries.
As these are player exclusives, it’s highly unlikely that they will ever officially be released to the public. However, given that the athletic department knows that University of Texas KDs are in high demand, you can never discount the possibility that this will finally be the year that a UT KD is again made available to the public (or so one writer can hope).
What are your thoughts on these Texas KD14s? Are you a fan of how they turned out, or are you just glad that a UT branded KD was produced this year at all?
Images via @TexasMBB and @UTBasketballEQ
How do I order a pair??
These were give exclusively to players and staff on the UT Basketball team, so unfortunately they’re not available for public purchase.